I've been retired for 13 years. Even when I worked I was semi retired. We always got a two month summer vacation. Since I have a Masters Degree in French, I always went to Europe. I saw a more of France than most French people.
Since I retired I have been buying and selling houses. I made a big profit. But the crash of 2008 put an end to that. So finally lately I travel again to Europe. I went to Paris twice this year. It was cold in February and rainy in May there.
At my Cape Cod house which I bought in 2003, I bicycle to the pond near my house every day. One morning in 2005, I found a man hanging from a tree there. The 56 year old Vietnam veteran had committed suicide that morning dressed in a white shirt, white jeans and white sneakers by hanging from that tree around the corner from his house. He left a wife and baby. Previously he had tried to do it in his garage. When I found him he had succeeded.
Now when I go to the pond I always straighten the cross that I put under that tree. The cross is made of clam shells, blue mussel shells and sticks. Marauding squirrels and overly efficient gardeners are always disturbing the cross. I straighten it each day. The dead man's wife and child still live around the corner. I have never seen them at the park on the pond in Old Cape Cod.
